Thursday, September 17, 2015

This book is identified as an historical fiction novel—meaning it is a novel describing imaginary events and people. Tell that to Katie Jane Taylor! She's the young girl who is the lead character in the story. The Ku Klux Klan was real. And what the Klan did in the 1950s was real. My wife read this book first. And she couldn't put it down. I read it and I can't wait to meet the author, who will be the guest speaker at the November meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

An exceptional book about a "man in blue" in the Bronx. Blue Blood was written and published before Blue Bloods appeared on television. And although there are some similarities, the book and the tv show are two separate entities. Most of the book was an enjoyable and enlightening read. I say "most" because the author didn't spare the pen in complaining about a certain unnamed few of his superiors. But then again, the book is fact and not fiction.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Langston Hughes wrote Samuel Battle's biography, Battle of Harlem, more than fifty years ago. It was about the life of the first black policeman in New York City. But no one wanted to publish it. So Battle had another friend revise the manuscript, and Eleanor Roosevelt wrote the Forward. Still, no one wanted to publish it.

Now, Arthur Browne, who has probably written more about New York and prominent New Yorkers than anyone else, has gotten Beacon Press to publish his book on Samuel Battle. Arthur Browne has taken the revised manuscript, interviewed Battle's surviving friends and relatives, researched more, even changed the title, and presented his book on Samuel Battle, not in color, but in black and white—and sometimes black versus white. Because when you pull the shade up and look out the window on race relations in America, it's not a pretty picture. I am, of course, referring to Black and White America as it was from the early 1900s to the 1950s. Or am I? There will be those who will adamantly refuse to read this book, yet will still sing God Bless America. Are you one of them?